. >> robert, does this hold watter? is the president, a, doing this and, b, is it working? >> i don't know if it's the president aes ont tiff, it could be. but the he had for capitol hill is republicans who for decades were opposed to any kind of tax rate increase is talking about a threshold for marginal tax rate increases. so that's automatic a win for president obama. this is a time for reflection. here on capitol hill you have republicans talking about what's next? how do they survive obama's second term in this is the first battle. they want to win the war. they don't want to get totally bruced in this fiscal cliff situation. they're willing to buckle a little bit on rates right now but ultimately when they talk about the debt ceiling, they think they can some other things they can attack 37. >> sam, is the obama white house this good? is this divide and conquer? >> well, first of all, no, they're not that good. and, you know, it's ironic because had boehner taken that last offer that obama gave him, one that would have changed the benefit structure for social security